Weisgall them. (The trust fund pays approximately $40 per month to each Bikinian, and the onetime $1.4 million payment will amount to $1,520 per person.) Nevertheless, the bigger questions remain unanswered. The Bikinians, most of whom have resided on Kili Island for over 30 years. must be resettled. but there are no suitable locations available outside their aroll. Land in the Marshalls is scarce, and there is nowhere the Bikinians could resettle without being squatrers on someone else’s land. Most of the Bikinians, however, reject the possibility of moving out of the Marshall Islands aret (say, to Hawaii), because they fear they would lose their Marshallese identity and cultural heritage. One possible compromise is Wake Aroll, annexed by the United States in 1899 bur considered by some to be part of the Marshall Islands. Located some 425 miles north of Bikini, Wake has no indigenous population. It has verylittle rainfall and virtually none of the life-sustaining vegetation commonly found throughout the rest of the Marshall Islands, but it does have one very attractive feature for the Bikinians—the American military. The Bikinians’ desire to be looked after by the United States may seem ironic, but it is understandable. The U.S. military removed them from Bikini in 1946. The Bikinians have not yet been given a home, so they look anxiously to the Unired States to continuc to care torthem. They view Wake as a pocket of continuing U.S. presence in the region, and in 1979 they asked that it be considered as a possible resettlement site. The Pentagon, however.has flatly refused to permit them to settle there. Even moreattractive to the Bikinians than Wake is Eneu, an island five miles south of Bikini in Bikini Atoll. Eneu is three times the size of Kili, it provides a calm lagoon for fishing, and it is equipped with an airstrip kinians propose to settle there using a sys- tem devised by the people of Enewetak in the mid-1970s, when they, like the Bikinians, were living temporarily on another atoll. When the southern islands of Enewetak were ready for habitation, the people had to decide who would move. Since the whole population could not move at once, the people set up a rotation system by which a certain percentage of the population moved to Enewetak for six months. After six months these people left and were replaced by another group. This rotation program is working successfully today. The Bikinians have Proposed to apply it to Eneuw Island. If the system is implemented. only part of the Bikinian population could be accommodated on Eneu at any given time: the remainder would stay where they are living now. Most of the Bikinians—550, or abour 60 per cent—are living on Kili, and the rest live on other atolls in the Marshalls. Some Bikinians may wish to live permanently on Kili or elsewhere without going back to Eneu. Snags and Squabbles Tt has always been assumed that the Biki- nians would live temporanly on Kili until they could return to Bikini. If DOE projec- tions are correct, a return to Bikini Island is at least several generations away. so the Bikini resettlement program should pro- vide continued support for people on Kili. The Bikinian community on Kili will require permanent housing: a short airstrip; and improved ocean access—either a dock. a deeper channel, or a ferry stationed at the nearest atoll, 40 miles away. Resettlement on Eneu, which the Bikinians have proposed to Congress and the administration, is not without pitfalls. Is the island safe for habitation? If it is, how will a rotation program be enforced? Who will in- Since it is uncertain whether Eneu can handle a large number of people, the Bi- sure that the people do not go five miles north to eat the food on Bikini Island? Who will take charge of the program. and who will insure that ships arrive with imported food at Eneu on a regular basis? 92. 93. built for the weapons testing program.